Fiction: Flipping a Coin (1154 words)

25Feb

Really, the hardest part about planning their wedding was trying to decide on which side of the ocean to have it on. She was American, born and raised. He was English, born and raised. They both loved their homes, their countries, and their families. They didn’t want to have to cut anyone out because of travel costs, unavailability, anything like that. She had her moments where she was tempted to play the “girl” card, claiming (truthfully) that she had been planning her dream wedding since she was a little girl.

But then again, she knew that he had been thinking about his wedding just as long. He’d always wanted to start his own family, and it was something that he had dreamt about since he was a little boy. It was an awful catch-22. Who should win?

They were determined not to actually get into a fight about it. They decided to plan the wedding as if they had both won their argument. They would look at the weddings, the estimates, the plans, and decide based on money, time and hassle.

They spread both weddings across the dining room table, sitting on opposite sides to present their arguments. The estimated budgets literally came down to less than 20 dollars apart when converted into the same currency. The times and hassle were on the same scale. They had two completely planned weddings, and absolutely no idea how to decide which to pick.

“This is hard.” Haley complained resting her head down on the table in front of her. When she sat back up, part of her wedding plans for America was stuck to her cheek, and she had to shake her head to knock it loose. It was humorous and depressing all at once.

“If love were easy, it’d be rather boring wouldn’t it?” Russell replied, using words from a story she wrote against her.

“True enough, but this still sucks majorly.”

“Yeah.” He agreed, looking at all the pages spread out in front of him. “Could we just have two weddings? One in the UK and one in the United States?”

“And whose wedding goes first and is the one we actually get married in? And do we want to drain our honeymoon fund to pay for two weddings, bring it down so drastically that we end up probably having to have a ‘staycation’ honeymoon?”

Russell wrinkled his nose, either at the word ‘staycation’ or the idea of what it implied—probably both. “No, I don’t want people to be able to just come and bug us at our house when we’re supposed to be honeymooning.”

“Then we are going to have to choose. America or England. Where do we want to get married?”

“I say England.” Russell chimed in.

“And I say America.”

They stared each other down for a moment before Russell heaved a sigh, and stood up from the table. “This is just awful.” He pinched the bridge of his nose. “One of us just needs to stop loving their families. If just one of us were just a cold heartless bastard towards our families, then it would be just that much easier.”

“Yeah, but I figure trying to convince the other stop loving their family would be a harder argument than trying to decide where to get married, so we’re just going to have to be decisive.” Haley glanced at all the papers on the table for barely a second, but then looked back up at her husband to be. “Want to flip a coin?’

It was a joke, but Russell looked up suddenly, a slightly wild grin on his face. “Yes, yes. Let’s do that. Let’s flip a coin. Heads, England. Tails, United States of America.”

Haley’s mouth hung open. “Russ, this is our wedding. You want to flip a coin to determine the fate of our wedding?”

“Why not? If it weren’t for the fact that my wedding plan is in England, would you have any problem with it?”

“Well, no. It would be a beautiful wedding.”

“And I think your wedding would be just as wonderful, except that it’s in the United States.”

“Russ, I—don’t know.”

“Come on, Hale. I thought you were the one who believed in fate. Great cosmic forces will guide the coin to have it land on the right side, eh?” Russ was teasing her, but only a little. He knew how important her faith was to her. She was Religious, a Christian girl who took her belief in God very seriously. It wasn’t to say that he didn’t believe in god, there had to be something up there pulling some strings in order for him to be lucky enough to end up with her, but he had a very hard time accepting a religion, truly understanding what they were trying to say. Before meeting Haley, he had a very set opinion on what practicing Christians were, and Haley had blown all of those ideas right out of the water. He had even, despite his long time instance that he never would or could, planned their wedding in England in a church.

Haley looked at the coin that Russell had fished out of his pocket. Although she’d probably never admit it, she said a quick prayer over that coin. “Heads, England, Tails United States?” She repeated.

Russell hesitated for a second, spinning the sliver piece between his fingers, then he brought it up and kissed it softly. If Haley didn’t know better, she might assume that he was saying a prayer for the coin as well. Then he flipped the coin into the air. He made no attempt to catch it, and just watched as it bounced off the table and rolled to the floor. Haley held her breath as she approached the spot on the carpet, and let it out with a sigh of “tails.”

“Well, that’s that then. United States it is,” Russell grumbled with fake annoyance. Haley grinned from ear to ear. Russell swept all his papers into a messy pile, and then deposited them into a trash can. “We should keep this coin flipping idea in mind, Hale. It’s worlds easier than stressing out for hours.”

“You want us to make all our major life decisions based on a coin flip?” Haley asked, starting to put her papers into their proper piles again.